Collapsable hennin

Wearing the finished collapsible, packable Burgundian Style truncated hennin with mundane clothing.

I was really inspired by Jessica Clark’s collapsable hennin and thought it would be a very practical dressmaker hat to take to camping events or anywhere else where packing space was going to be at a premium.

From my research discussed in Dating, placing, & dressing the horned hennin, I knew that I could wear a truncated hennin with a Houppelande, a Cotehardie, and a V-neck Burgundian gown. I still need more research to see if I can find evidence wearing it with a sideless surcote.

Lace wireframe crown

Finished lace wireframe crown

I have a masquerade party coming, and I have a certain costume idea in mind… not sure that I’ll actually accomplish it in the long run, but part of the idea included a lace crown/tiara. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d pull it together… so this was a bit of trial-and-error.

Dating, placing, & dressing the horned hennin

Click for the blog post about my Horned Hennin!

When making the second version of the horned headdress – the horned hennin for the January 2018 Historical Sew Monthly challenge – I learned that in the time period this was depicted in my main inspiration images, fashions were changing very quickly, and being ‘out of fashion’ became a more significant social issue. With that in mind, I decided to dig a bit deeper to see if I wanted to make a new garment to accompany this new hat.

While I started the millinery project just with the thought of exploring the style for a friend who wanted to make one – once it was done I thought it might also be useful for the elevation celebration costume for Philippe, who will be elevated to the order of the Laurel (in the SCA) this spring.

Horned Hennin (version 2)

Horned Hennin hat version 2 in dark red cotton velvet with faux pearl and metal embellishment

A while ago I made my first horned (or heart-shaped) hennin. Recently, a friend commented about wanting to make one of her own, but as we were discussing styles, I realized that she wanted a different style than what I had in mind.

I was tickled with the idea of trying a different method (and being able to help her do the same) so decided to look a little more at this style, to try to make a new horned hennin of my own.

My friend wanted to make a “Christine de Pizan double horned hat”, which led me to images like this:

Christine de Pizan book illumination

and this:

Millinery pattern drafting class

Different parts of the hat are flared to different amounts

At the SCA event Yule in the barony of Borealis (mundanely Edmonton) I’ve offered to teach a class on pattern drafting for millinery (hats).

The event takes place December 9-10, 2017. The Facebook event for more information is here.